Steven Anderson is the Director of Instructional Technology for Winston/Salem County Schools in North Carolina. Steven uses his blog to have open reflection on his philosophies connected to technology and education.
This blog connects technology and the classroom with many resources for elementary teachers all the way up through university professors. Steven blogs about educational games like Angry Birds and how to connect this game with various subjects within a classroom. He explores webinars and others peoples blogs to decipher what new technologies other are using in the classroom and how he can put those ideas into the classrooms in his district. Steven also discusses why some new technologies are hard to use in the classroom and where the developers may need to go to get them into the classrooms.
This blog is easy to read, makes since to those who are new to technology, and gives space to ask questions. I found myself wanting to ask him questions about every post!
Ratings: Opening Post-4, Illustration/Graphics-5, Frequeney-2 (Has a post about why he doesn't post everyday. Steven wants his blog to be about reflection on new technologies he learns about, not forced daily blogging.)
Kim Cofino is an Educational Technology Facilitator for international school and uses her blog as a place to reflect on her teaching and learning in an educational technology setting.
This blog makes the reader do a lot of thinking. She poses great questions that make the readers think outside of the box and call them to action.
This blogger uses this medium to post projects her students are working on, to talk about summits and conferences she has attending or spoken at, and to teach her readers to connect to other educational professionals around the world. She also does an excellent job or empowering her readers to try technology in the classroom by showing how she has done it.
Lisa Nielson's uses her blog to "harness the power of technology for learning and using the power of social media to provide a voice for educators and students."
At this blog site Lisa connects webcast, audiocast, and her radio shows to get her thoughts out to the public. She uses her blog to promote her book, "Teaching Generation Text" and talks about the new home school connection to technology.
Her daily blogs are based of current topic trends, such as the new release of the IPhone and its impact on the educational community. This site is loaded with information and can be hard to decipher at times. If I want to find a current topic to discuss with my colleagues I go to this blog to get ideas.
Rating: Opening Post-4,Illustrations/Graphics-4, Frequency 5
Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano's blog explores building global networks in the classroom. Read articles, watch videos, browse by category, and download resources.
After hearing Silvia at the Building Learning Communities conference in Boston, MA, I have visited her blog frequently for fresh classroom ideas, learning about new resources, and to hear what's happening in classrooms around the world.
This site is loaded with rich information, and can be overwhelming at times. I often visit for a specific purpose and end up spending much longer than I had originally planned, getting lost in a web of new ideas!
Rating: Opening Post-5, Illustration/Graphics-5, Frequency-3 (based on blog, but would earn a 5 on Twitter)
ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in Education: The Educational Technology Site is a site with the purpose of featuring articles selected to be useful to anyone who have an interest in educational technology. The author of the article is Terry Freedman, Educational ICT Consultant, whom authors most of the articles featured on the site.
The overall aim is to provide users, teacher, leaders and managers of educational ICT high quality articles.
Rating: Opening Post-5, Illustration/Graphics-4, Frequency-1 (The site states that it is constantly updating but does not respond to comments left by bloggers)
The website is published through GoogleBlog.blogspot.com. The purpose of the site is be the official weblog of Google with news of new products, events, glimpses of life inside Google, and an avenue for individual bloggers to communicate with others.
The above blog is by authored by Natalie Wojinski and it is about her experience with the learning styles assessment quiz that she took and the implication it can have on the students.
The website is useful only for looking for blogs by this author with the title explaining that the ideas and comments posted being from her own journey as a geography teacher, yearbook adviser and newspaper advisor. The page does offer an insight into blogs that the author subscribes to as additional reading material with links to issues that are close to the author’s personal beliefs.
Rating: Opening Post: 5, Illustration/Graphic: 4, Frequency: 2 (comments are up to date, but blogs were last updated four months ago.)
The website is design for the purpose of communicating with other professional at all three levels of education. The publisher of the site is ‘dangerously ! irrelevant: Technology, Leadership, and the Future of Schools’. The author of the blog is Scott McLeod, Ph.D. an associate professor for Educational Leadership Studies.
The site offers resources in the form of bookmarks, DDDM (Direct Drive Decision Making), the future of print, moving forward, recommended reading/viewing, slides, and tech tools. In addition, the site shows top posts, features, and other blogs that are published by the author and those subscribed to by the author.
Users are able to subscribe to the blog, preview upcoming trips, archives, popular latest, and recent comments to other blogs. The blog can be followed on Tweeter, Google Plus, Pin It, At&T and Buffer.
Rating: Opening Post: 5, Illustration/Graphic: 5, Frequency: 5 (Updated by the post).
This section of Edutopia focuses on incorporating technology into today's classrooms. Explore blogs, videos, articles, or search for a particular topic.
I've used this site for lesson plans, educating/communication with parents, supporting themes in my Walden classes, and sharing resources with my colleagues.
This site has a clean appearance and is easy to maneuver. It has buttons above each page to share on Facebook, Twitter, etc. I also appreciate the "More Like This" bar on the right side of the screen that suggests articles, blogs, etc. based on the page you are currently visiting.
Rating: Opening Post-5 (based on blogs, articles linked from opening page), Illustration/Graphics-4, Frequency-3 (based on most recent blog post)
Make an account to connect and collaborate with classrooms around the world!
I have not yet followed through with any projects on this site, but am planning to incorporate more project-based learning into my classroom this year. It seems that members must be fully committed to regular collaboration opportunities before they decide to take on a project. This is a great way to safely join forces with another classroom and choose a match based on topic, location, language, student age, etc. ePals partners with Smithsonian, National Geographic, and Cobblestone & Cricket to offer extensive resources and learning opportunities.
Blogs:
Blogging About The Web 2.0 Connected Classroom Blog- A blend of Technology and Education (Billina):http://blog.web20classroom.org/2012/08/reflections-on-being-blogger.html#disqus_thread
Always Learning Blog (Billina):http://kimcofino.com/blog/
The Innovative Educator Blog-Way out of the box (Billina):http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/
Langwitches Blog - The Magic of Learning (Caroline): http://langwitches.org/blog/
Grisby
Ed Tech Innovation--#1: Introduce A New Routine http://www.ictineducation.org/home-page/2012/8/30/ed-tech-innovation1-introduce-a-new-routine.html
EZ Tech Integration For Teachers. http://eztechintegration.blogspot.com/2011/07/from-web-whats-your-learning-style.html#comment-form
In interesting solution to the ‘friending students on Facebook’ dilemma? http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/
Websites:
Edutopia - Technology Integration (Caroline): http://www.edutopia.org/tech-integration
ePals Global Community (Caroline): http://www.epals.com/